makeup

Between combating plunging temperatures outside, and battling artificial heating inside, even the oilyest of skin can start to dry out..and dry skin only spells disaster for a full face of foundation.
Base makeup of any sort clings to the tiniest of flakes and quickly starts looking cakey and gross. Plus, unlike a pimple or dark spot, you can’t conceal dry patches or rough texture; you have to actually fix the problem to get rid of it.

As someone with chronically dry (not to mention sensitive) skin, I’ve tried all sorts of things to keep my makeup looking smooth and flawless, without having to cake it on or having it separate a few hours later. Here are my tips for a flawless face when your face starts flaking off:

Start with the Skin

Photo Credit: Geekyposh-That rabbit knows what’s up 😂

-exfoliate regularly and before big events to provide a smooth, flake-free canvas (be sure to hit areas like your hairline, jawline, the corners of your mouth, and the sides of your nose-all easily missed spots for flakes).

-moisturize regularly and before big events to plump, hydrate, and nourish skin. Sleeping packs, wash-off hydrating masks, and sheet masks are all super helpful, especially if used right before makeup application.

-If you find that your makeup tends to separate, make sure your primer and base makeup are either both oil-based or both water-based. Much like salad dressing, oil and water don’t mix. Oil breaks down makeup (exhibit A why oil cleansers are so effective) so choose and match your formulations carefully. You may find it best to skip a primer all together!

Laying the Foundation

Photo Credit: A Piece of Toast

-Sheer foundations, serum-style foundations, and “dewy” finish foundations will be more hydrating than medium-full coverage foundations and matte finishes, which can be more drying.

-A damp beauty blender will pick up excess product so you use as little product as possible to get the job done. Less product means less flake-clinging-grossness.

*By using a beauty blender to dab on foundation and not buffing product in with a brush, you prevent micro exfoliation which can lift up dead skin flakes and further irritate skin.

*Damp beauty blenders also emulate a popular skincare practice in Korea where the hands are used to pat in water left from the shower into the facial skin instead of wiping the face with a towel. A damp beauty blender is dabbing water into the skin, hydrating it much the same way.
-Patting on product in several different directions in the same area helps to keep the product from settling into fine lines and clinging to dry spots. In the eye area and smile line area, it will help prevent creasing.

-Reach for creamy, buttery formulations of things like blushes and highlighters over powders. They tend to smooth over dryness instead of sticking to and highlighting it.

These are the main things that have really helped me achieve a more flawless face even in the middle of wintertime. Proper skin maintainence to prevent this problem in the first place is of course the best thing you can do to ensure consistently good makeup, but sometimes our skin needs a helping hand to look the best it can 🙂

There are few worse feelings than dropping a large sum of money on a designer makeup something-or-other, only to accidentally break it by its second or third use. All it takes is one overzealous swipe of a brand new lipstick shade until the tip breaks off from the tube and is rolling around on the floor, or one miscalculated reach for a brush, and that brand-new contour palette is in powdery shards on the bathroom counter top. However its been broken, here’s how to fix it:

Powders:

This category encompasses the majority of breakage. One wrong bump and the contents seem to fall apart. If broken compacts and palettes are a problem, luckily, they are super easy to fix.

image credit

Place as many pieces as possible back into the original pan. Add a few, tiny drops of rubbing alcohol over the mess. The powder will become very soft and pliable once the alcohol is added. Use something like a butter knife, clean fingertip, or toothpick to push and mold the softened powder back into shape. Let it dry overnight. The alcohol will evaporate, leaving the powder uniform again. It may not be as pretty as before, but it will still work just the same.

If the powder is too broken/just too powdery to reconstitute in the pan with alcohol, it can always be ground up and stored in a empty container to be used as loose powder.

Lipsticks:

Lipsticks have a knack for randomly breaking, especially, it seems, they newer and more expensive they are. Here are two things that can salvage a lipstick gone rouge.

The first option is to reattach the remaining lipstick in the tube to the part that has broken off. Make sure to at least wipe off the outside of the lipstick, especially if has touched the floor. Next, take a match or lighter and heat the top of the lipstick that is still inside the tube. Be very careful not to overheat and completely melt the lipstick; it should be gooey, not runny. Once the lipstick inside the tube has been heated, gently press the broken portion on top of the melted portion. Use a clean finger or spoon/knife to smooth out the edges. Let it chill in the refrigerator for 30 minutes to an hour. After it cools completely, its ready to be used once again!

If a lipstick breaks and dealing with it potentially breaking again doesn’t sound too appealing, creating a lipstick palette may be a good alternate option (or just a funny, rainy afternoon project!). All that is needed is a lighter or match (heat source), a small spoon or bowl, an empty container/palette (empty eye shadow ones work amazingly well), toothpicks/ butter knife, and of course, broken lipstick(s). The first step is to take an appropriate amount of lipstick (what will fit in the container) and place it into the spoon/bowl. Slowly heat up the lipstick from underneath the bowl while stirring the lipstick with a toothpick or butter knife. Keep in mind that it takes very little heat for lipstick to melt. Once the lipstick reaches a consistency that it can easily be poured, go ahead and use it to fill the palette. Lipstick expands as it cools so leave a little space for expansion at the top. Use the back of a spoon or a knife to smooth the surface of the lipstick. After it cools, it is ready to use.

This method makes it easy to use favorite lipstick shades as blushers as well.

If more lipstick shades are going to be used, be sure to clean the “mixing spoon”/bowl to not contaminate shade integrity. Customized shades could potentially be mixed and poured as well. Don’t be afraid of getting creative!

Has anyone tried any of these before? The alcohol+powder trick has saved me more than once:) Thanks for reading!

I always love seeing posts and videos addressing the “what’s in my bag” tag. I’m not very much a snoopy person, but I feel that a person’s purse can reveal a lot about them, making me feel like I know a certain vlogger or blogger better, and it is also a great outlet for picking up product recommendations and discovering new cute/useful things I probably wouldn’t otherwise. I never thought I’d ever be running a blog let alone be doing one of these myself. Oh, life’s surprises 🙂

I’m pretty minimalist when it comes to carrying things around. Its usually just my wallet, my phone, my makeup bag, and my keys, plus whatever essentials I may need to lug around that day (books, laptop, etc).

So my makeup pouch is what makes up the majority of what I carry. I tend to keep all of my makeup stuff grouped together in this simple white pouch or a larger clear one when I need more than just touch-up supplies. I *always* take at least my cushion compact (w/SPF containing foundation/bb cream), my Ciracle sebum control powder, a comb, my super-cute macaroon lip balm, and whatever lip color I’m wearing that day. What usually happens is a bajillion and one lip products wind up living in this pouch because I can never remember/be bothered to take them back out. I try to keep oil absorbing sheets and breath mints/gum in there as well.

If I know that I’ll need to stay decent-looking all day, say I have to observe classes or meet with a bunch of students that day, I’ll go ahead and bring concealer and either a brush, or more often, my travel-size makeup blender-so convenient! Any “finicky” makeup, like an eye shadow or blush that I know tends to fade fast, gets stuck in here as well. If I’ll be outside a lot, walking and such, my sunscreen comes with me too.

I always try to have a facial mist with me like this adorable bunny one from TonyMoly. Hydration is so important!

Just in case anyone is wondering why someone with dry skin is carrying around both oil absorbing sheets AND a sebum control powder, its not really for my skin, but for combating what the weather does to my face. From essentially March to late September, Florida is so freaking hot and humid, it destroys your makeup and any hope of a matte finish. I have to use a lot of hydrating makeup products (like foundation and concealer) to not emphasize and exacerbate my dry skin, but the creamier the product, the more the humidity takes it from “dewy-fresh” to “OMG-this girl needs to go take a shower, I was blinded by the sun gleaming off her sweat? highlight? pores? do I want to know?”

Basically, I use the facial mist to (cool the f*** off) help remove extra makeup, then blot it off once it evaporates/absorbs with an oil absorbing sheet (which is much gentler than say, a paper towel or piece of separated TP). Then, after I touch up with a little foundation or concealer, I finish off with the Ciracle powder which has amazing staying power and tends to give my face a longer chance at surviving the 90%+ humidity in 90+ degree (F) heat.

Well, there you have it: my first ever “what’s in my bag.” If you all decide to do one of these in the near future, I would love to read/watch them! Let me know in the comments below 🙂 What’s currently in your bag?

August is winding down to a close and bringing with it the end of summer (or at least the beginning of the end as where I live, the weather insists on staying hot until the end of September on a good, early winter year). Even though I’ll still be struggling consistently with high temperatures and humidity for probably another month, at least on those few glorious days of crisp air, I can bust out a sweater and take a break from envying those already complaining of the chill. Since its the end of the month and also of the season (more or less), I thought I’d do something a little special and do an empties favorite post.

These are the products I’ve been loving enough to finish the whole bottle (or tub, whatever) this month :

Scinic All Day Fine Clay Pore Mask-I originally didn’t LOVE this product, but as I began to use it more and more, I began to like it more and more. It seriously helps refine my pores, but manages to somehow not dry out my dry skin. Don’t get me wrong though: you will feel this stuff drying on your face. Your face will not be able to move without a little crackly pain. But when you look in the mirror and see all the crap that was in your pores on the dry surface of the mask, that accidental smile that felt like it ripped your chin off will be so, so worth it. The texture is whipped by the way, which is really cool for a clay mask. It spreads easily, but definitely hop in the shower or use a face cloth when you try to get it off. I probably just made it sound terrible here, but it will seriously whip your pores into shape (hahaha!)

Memebox I’m Blush-I’ve hit complete pan on this blush. It was just such a great babydoll shade of pink that looked super natural and just seemed to go with everything. I don’t think they sell this anymore so feel free to give me suggestions down below!

Urban Decay Foundation-this has been one of my favorite foundations ever. The coverage is sheer, but also probably the most buildable and natural looking I have ever come across. Next time at the store, I’ll be forking over the cash for another one…and probably for their equally as awesome concealer. I have absolutely no idea how I lived without these two things before stumbling on them a year ago.

Memebox I’m Cleansing Oil-like a loyal steed, this has taken off my makeup almost every night for the past six months. I had originally wanted the dry skin version of this oil, but settled for the oily skin version when the one I wanted was sold out. It’s very moisturizing despite the name. On sale, this was quite a bang for my buck. A little really went a long way.

CosRX AHA/BHA Clarifying Treatment Toner-this is such an amazing toner, perfect for brightening skin while helping adjust skin’s pH to an ideal level for applying actives (like the name suggests). It’s also very hydrating at the same time-I’d spritz it on my face all day long if I could!

Missha All Around Safe Block Sun Essence- with an SPF of 45 and a PA+++ rating, this quick-drying, hydrating, and invisible-once-applied sunscreen has got me hooked. It completely disappears into the skin, and doesn’t ball up or flake under makeup. It is also quick drying (but not at all drying to the skin!), doesn’t have that typical sunscreen-y smell, or feel greasy or gross in any way. I would definitely recommend this one to anyone new to the sunscreen-can-actually-be-pleasant game, along with the ever-famous Biore Aqua Rich.

I would repurchase any of these products in a heartbeat- in fact, replacements for some may already be on their way!

As I seemingly am always pressed for time getting ready (thank you Korean skin routine) and am not really a fan of spending 15 minutes doing my brows alone like so many of the tutorials and YouTube videos out there, I thought I would write about how a “brow-lazy” girl does her brows (in two minutes, tops, no joke).

This post was originally inspired by a comment on an article on the Into the Gloss website. It was something along the lines of “yet another girl with good eyebrows to begin with doing a brow guide-what about the non brow blessed people?!” Good-to-begin-with brows or not, I still think it’s a great starting point for those learning how to fill in their eyebrows.

But this comment did get me thinking. Blonde brow’d people have so few products that match their color (always seem too brown) AND that are also easy to find (when I went brow makeup shopping, ULTA had two Anastasia taupe brow kits and no blonde ones, but about 10-15 of brown and black shades kits!). They also deal with young children questioning their brows’ existence all the time-we certainly aren’t the most disadvantaged brow population out there, but we definitely don’t come to mind whenever “bold brows” is tossed around! So, here is a Non-Perfect Brow Guide, made by a Non-Perfect Brow Person.

These are the products I use and how I use them to do my brows on a daily basis:

Prep work: About once a week, I’ll go in with a pair of tweezers and focus my efforts in the Unibrow Danger Zone. I’ll also take a minute to clean up the space under my brow, removing any weird baby hair or strange strands that don’t belong. If anything is getting overgrown, I use a pair of manicure siccors to trim it down. Regularly keeping the brows groomed helps keep makeup time down- much like clearer skin means less time spent on base makeup 🙂 This is generally the area of eyebrows that leads to Non-Perfect Eyebrows via Brow Horror Stories. Try to prevent that.

1) Since I like to use powder over pencil, I run a clear brow gel through my brows to give the powder something to stick to and to brush my brows into a fuller, more well-kept state.

2) I then take a spoolie and brush my brows downward, and use brow powder to sketch out the arch, making a light line. I then use the spoolie to brush the hairs back up over the line.

3) I take the same shade of brow powder and use light, feathery strokes to add definition and color to my brows. I use the spoolie to blend out the powder and distribute it evenly throughout the hairs.

Tip: Go easy on the color on the inner parts of your brow, and avoid extending the brow longer than the outer edge of your eye-this can make the eye area look droopy!

4) Repeat powder and blend step as necessary. Generally once will suffice. Make sure there aren’t any weird gaps in the application.

5) To add a final layer of definition and to keep brows in place all day, I finish off with a tinted brow mascara. I lightly run this through my brows in 1-2 quick strokes. Run the spoolie through brows a final time to disperse any clumps or concentrations of color.

Bonus Step: to get my brows to “pop,” I’ll add a little highlighter both on my brow bone and slightly above the arch of my brow during that step of my makeup.

I personally feel that blonde brows are more forgiving than darker brows in terms of maintainence, but a lot harder to actually define and use makeup on. In a way it’s nice (forgot to pluck? Not really a problem!), but also it makes many looks harder to pull off without that bold brow to frame everything. For me, a hint of color and combing things into place is enough for daily wear.

What is your current brow routine? Do you have any Brow Horror Stories of bleaching or overplucking? 😜

School has just begun, and getting back into the swing of things can be tough. The days are growing shorter instead of longer, and our schedules start filling up more and more as we try to balance school, work, life, and the upcoming holiday season. The increase in stress means we all need a little more shut eye to look and feel our best, but having to get up early to get ready can interfere with the best laid plans for a full 8 hours snooze session.

I’ve put together this mini-guide to offer some tips, tricks, and products that will allow you to hit snooze as many times as you need, and still look amazing, whether you have 5 minutes or 30.

Flawless Skin:

For mornings when time is of the essence (or just very late nights when you can’t be bothered), combine your entire skin routine into one step using these handy 7 Second Morning Sheets by Skin Factory. Many people I know swear by these sheets, most of them claiming it is just as effective (if not better) than their actual routine.

Keep your nose clean and clear with blackhead removing sheets. There are numerous reputable brands that offer everything from simple peel off strips ranging from 1-3 steps to more elaborate extraction kits. Use them 2-3 times a week for best results.
There are also peel-off mask options that may be better depending on your time and tastes. Elizavecca’s Hell-Pore Clean Up Mask is one of my personal favorites.
A fresh face starts with a clean face; nothing feels more invigorating than a good morning cleansing session. CosRX makes a very appropriately named low pH Good Morning Cleanser that is perfect for getting your day off to a glowy start. If you tend to struggle with acne, try this salicylic cleanser by CosRX or Skinfood’s Tea Tree cleanser to keep spots at bay.

Make sure to put hydrocolloid bandages on your shopping list to make pimples literally disappear overnight. There are many different options at many different prices. There are these by Nexcare, and, of course, a CosRX version.

Investing in and regularly using a sleeping pack or two will help keep your skin healthy and hydrated while you sleep-not to mention, give you a literal I-woke-up-like-this glow when you wake up. When you are pressed for time and/or can’t bring yourself to apply an army of skincare products, having one or two trusty sleeping packs will ensure your skin doesn’t get too neglected. There are many options, but here are my top three picks:

Cushion compacts provide natural, flawless coverage in no time at all. They combine the coverage of a makeup sponge with convenience of a portable powder compact. It’s amazingly quick to apply, and you can even make your own! Tuck one in your bag for quick touch-ups on the go.

For mornings when you are especially pressed for time, it’s good to have a few lipsticks that can multitask as not just lip color, but blush and even shadow as well. After swiping some color on your lips, using clean fingers, pick up some color off the tip and apply to the cheek, and then some on the eyelid for quick pops of color and awake-ness. Hot poured tinted glosses make blending even easier.

If you have more than 3 seconds to spare, investing in a eyeshadow quad or a small palette with natural, simple colors makes pulling off “I woke up like this” a breeze.

Have absolute zero time? There are options of cute palettes that include concealer, BB cream, and a colored tint, all in one convenient package. If you continually find yourself running late enough to need to apply makeup in the bus, car, or bathroom, a product like this will be a saving grace. But even with snooze-button-hitting habits aside, this is great for on-the-go touch-ups as well. Try this super-cute one by Dinoplatz.

Create a Pimple Survival Kit. Carrying around a small bottle of eye redness remover drops, some Q-tips, and a waxy concealer like the dark circle concealer from Skinfood (it works on pimples just as well as circles!) will help neutralize any sudden spots that may crop up as you walk across campus (or from the break room back to the office). Keeping an ice pack or spoon in the freezer at home is wonderful for not only taking down the swelling of large zits, but can also be used to depuff eyebags and cheeks.

A brightening concealer can help fake a killer inner-glow. Try the Naked Skin Weightless Concealer from Urban Decay. It works as a highlighter in a pinch and can help you fake awake when applied around the eyes.

Healthy Hair is Good Hair

Keeping your hair as healthy as possible is the best way to live bad hair-day free. Finding ways to avoid heat styling such as overnight styling methods like rag curls, pin curls, braids, etc keep damage at bay. To find out more about these methods, please see this post for my rag curling and braid tutorials, and this post for my pin curl tutorial.

Regular conditioning treatments are crucial to maintaining healthy, manageable hair. L’ador makes many fantastic products that will honestly make everyday a good hair day. For regular conditioning, try their Tea Tree Scalp Clinic Hair Pack for silky soft strands. For more luxurious once or twice a week conditioning treatments, try their 10 minute Hydro LPP Double-Collagen Treatment or their Perfect Hair Fill-Up Ampoule (see my review on it here). This brand also makes a shampoo as well that helps protect color treated hair. It is very gentle and great for thin-haired gals too. Looking for a sulfate-free shampoo formulation means less damage for your hair (the less suds, the better).

For severely damaged hair, there is the famous and pricey Olaplex-a hair treatment designed by scientists that actually repairs the broken bonds of damaged hair. While I had this treatment done in a salon, post-bleach/balayage job, it is available for home use both to mix with color/bleach and also as a post color/bleach treatment. In my experience, the results were mind-blowingly smooth and it honestly felt like my hair had not gone through any processing at all. It actually felt healthier than it ever had in my life! If you want visual proof, Guy Tang uses it in almost all of his Youtube videos and you can see how (and how well) it works from those. Here is a link to his channel if you would like to watch and see for yourself.

With these tips under your belt, you’ll be able to get the sleep you need while literally “waking up like this” every morning, with minimal effort.

Disclaimer: These links are simply here for your convenience. At the time of writing this post, I am not affiliated with any of these links.

It happens to all of us. Lurking deep within our vanity drawers and bathroom cabinets is an arsenal of long-forgotten products from disappointing buys or those side-items and freebies from bulk buys. Relegated to being the wrong shade or texture or just not quite right, these poor items wither away in the dark recesses of our beauty stashes, rarely seeing the light of day.

I bought some sort of small makeup bundle from Memebox over a year ago. It included a bunch of items that I really wanted to try, just so happening to include a super-pigmented coral lip gloss, that, while I wasn’t super into it,I wasn’t going to not buy the whole box because of it.

Fast forward, the package arrives, and I begin to try all the lovely new things. When I get to the lip liquid, I don’t think I had ever tried a worse product: the shade was *SO* wrong and ugly on me, and the consistency was super gross and would not stay put, leaving streaks of bright orange over my regular lips. It quickly got tossed to the bottom of the pile.

The perfectly curved doe foot brush is about the only thing I liked about this product…at first

But fast forward again to earlier this year, and a brief stint with replicating make up artist PONY’s YouTube video looks, and I’m suddenly scrambling through my stash looking for a coral something-or-other to slap on my lips.

Not being a regular coral lip type person, the Memebox tint was the only thing on hand.

I put it on as carefully as I could and it was sadly just as terrible as I remembered. I let it sit as I dried my hair, vowing to take it off once I was done. Then, something amazing happened.

I began to blot off the horrid substance with a tissue, and was shocked to see a gorgeous tint left behind.

Now that summer is here and coral lips don’t look as strange as they do in deep wintertime, I’ve busted out this tint to see if I can’t give a really crappy product new life.

Before

Waiting for the liquid to dry

After

For a nice, subtle tint

1) Make sure your lips are prepped as this product will settle into and emphasize any dry, flaky bits (I am telling you from experience). Give them a little love with a quick exfoliation and a touch of lip balm. Let it sink in (perhaps while you finish the rest of your makeup?).

2) Apply a thin layer of the lip liquid, let it dry for 30 seconds or so, then blot it off.

3) Now that all the prep work is done, apply a nice, even layer like you would for an actual lip tint. Leave it on for 5-8 minutes (it’ll get all gross and tacky).

4) Once it’s at the prime of “eww-ness,” go ahead and blot it off with a tissue. You should be left with a gorgeous tint.

*the more you apply in step 3, and the longer you let it sit, will determine how bright of a tint you get and, therefore, how long your tint will last.

One lip “tint” : 2 looks
If you’re looking for something a little less time consuming, this tint actually can serve as a pretty blush as well.

If you are wearing cream foundation, you can just dab on a little of this liquid and blend with your fingers or a makeup sponge.

Is that too bright for you?

You can turn down the color pay-off by mixing the liquid with some liquid/cream foundation before applying as mentioned above.

Its a bit darker in real life (camera kept washing out the color :P), but you can see how the liquid transforms from a bright orange to a natural glow , especially when mixed with foundation!

I really like layering this blush with a deeper pink one for a more dimensional color. I think it would make a really cool trend!

I definitely don’t advocate buying products that you don’t like of course, but with kbeauty where most of the time you HAVE to buy it online, the chances of occasionally getting the wrong shade or a product that just isn’t all you thought it would be is inevitable. While sometimes a product is just a horrible dud, I thinks it’s always best to take the “waste not, want not” approach, and do your best to give it a second life!

Perhaps a lip product in your stash is your next fav blush? Who knows! Anything you’ve been wanting to “recycle” or “repurpose?” Let me know down below! 🙂